Ever wonder how old those Babysitters Club charges would be these day? Forgotten which Pike is which? Want to laugh at the BSC in all their jackassery? This is the place.

Monday, September 10, 2012

"It was Project New Dawn all the way!" BSC #50 Dawn's Big Date (1992)

AKA Dawn Acts Like an
Idiot to Impress a Boy (Again)

This one wasn't quite as
bad as I thought it was going to be. I guess that's because I basically felt
like Dawn did at her age, although I never tried to "solve" the
problem the way she did.

You see, Dawn started
writing to Logan's cousin two Dawn books ago (#37), and now he's coming to town
for a visit. Dawn decides to use him as practice for a "real"
boyfriend, and decides that since she's never attracted a boy before, there
must be something wrong with her. So she changes her looks, her clothes and her
personality to try to be cool. It backfires because, of course, cousin Lewis
liked her the way she was. She goes back to her own self and gets her first
kiss.

In the B plot, a new
sitting client named Norman Hill has a weight problem. Kids at school pick on
him and his own parents focus only on his weight. He finally stands up for
himself to his sister and tells his parents how the weight-centered household
makes him feel. He decides to lose weight because HE wants to look and feel
good and not for anyone else.

Interesting Tidbits

Dawn says Sharon and
Richard dated for "ages." How long could it have been, when Dawn
moved to the East Coast midway through seventh grade and they were married in
eighth grade?

Lewis is coming in
mid-January. MA says his school is on a different schedule than theirs. I don't
know any school outside of a college where they're off in the middle of
January. I know some schools on the East Coast get a week off randomly in the
middle of February, but I can't imagine having a week off when you were just
off for a couple of weeks less than a month ago.

Ha ha ha. Dawn says she
must not be completely insecure because people are always telling her what an
individual she is. She's an individual because she eats what she likes and
wears what's comfortable. Some of the people I know who are most insecure (and
I include myself in that number) are the ones who are the most different and
weird. Dawn is totally insecure...she worries about what everyone else thinks
all the time. I think that's what irks me about her--she claims to be so secure
and not caring what others think when it's clearly not the case.

Sharon's New Year's
resolution is to get more organized. Obviously, she doesn't stick to it.

Dawn points out that
even though Claudia only reads Nancy Drews, at least she's reading something.
Never thought Dawn and I would agree on something (besides the red meat thing.)

On that note, a friend
of mine said that, when she's a mother, she's only going to let her children
read classics and not "crap like the Babysitters Club." She was like
me growing up, and read everything she could get her hands on, and she wishes
her mother had forced her to read "better" literature.

Ah, the toilet monster.

I remembered this right
away when I saw Norman Hill was introduced in this one. I remember thinking
when I saw his name, "If he's named Norman, he's either really fat or
kinda stupid." Norman is one of those names, like Bertha, that is just cliché
for FAT.

Okay. When they're
decorating for New Year's, Dawn and MA find a banner that reads
"1979" and hang it up. This has got to be Sharon's, as I can't
picture Richard not throwing that away the second 1980 reared its head. But are
we supposed to believe that Sharon hung onto a banner for 13 years, through a
divorce and a move? Is she a hoarder in addition to being a slob?

Sharon and Richard
invite Jessi's dad to have a drink with them and toast the New Year
(conveniently, he walked, rather than drove). What time is this party starting
that they're already toasting? Jessi says she's never stayed up to midnight
before this year. I remember being excited to stay up to midnight, but I think
I was eight or nine.

The girls call boys
after midnight to wish them a happy New Year. What if some people went to bed
before midnight? I know my dad wouldn't have been happy to get a call at 12:20
at night, even on January 1.

They keep referring to
Bart as Bart-man. I guess this is when the Simpsons was really big.

I could swear that in
later books, it's Sara Hill, not Sarah Hill. Anyone?

Dawn tells Sarah the
Little Mermaid is her favorite movie, and Sarah's thrilled because it's her
favorite, too. I think it was just about every little girls' favorite in 1992.
(I liked Beauty and the Beast better, myself.)

Why do the Hills stock
junk food if they don't want Norman to eat it? If he has to go on a diet, the
whole family should. It's pretty crummy if, for example, Norman only gets a
scoop of tuna fish salad for dinner and Sarah gets to eat a handful of Oreos
after.

Mallory teaches Dawn how
to blow a bubble. Dawn says it's the first piece of gum she's ever chewed,
which I find a little suspicious. Even people who like health food chew gum to
get icky tastes out of their mouths.

Mr. Bruno drives Logan,
MA and Dawn to the airport to pick up Lewis. All three sit in the backseat. I
can't imagine wanting to take my son's girlfriend and her stepsister to the
airport like that. Plus, Mrs. Bruno is in the front seat. Two things. 1. Where
are Kerry and Hunter? 2. Where is Lewis supposed to sit? It's not a car with
three rows of seats, because Logan, MA and Dawn are all sitting next to each
other. It's like the Pikes in last week's book. (Sure enough, Lewis is crammed
in with the other three on the way home.)

Ooh, this is slightly
bitchy. MA tells Dawn to use "you-directed conversations" because it
will make Lewis think she's interesting because she's interested in him. Dawn
asks MA if she uses that technique and MA says, "No, because Logan likes
me the way I am." I know she's trying to help Dawn get along better with
Lewis, but she's making it sound like there's something wrong with Dawn
(outside the obvious, I mean.)

Norman's pretty smart
for seven. He's great at hiding his eating from his family and he has some
great stories to tell his pen-pal girlfriend. Later, when his mother tells him
to drink lots of water to keep his system flushed, he responds "I'm not a
toilet bowl."

Mrs. Hill's first name
is Michelle, and Mr. Hill is Harold. I've got songs from The Music Man stuck in
my head.

Dawn's self-esteem is
practically non-existent in this book. MA is trying to help her, but she
assumes that the "help" means that MA thinks there's something wrong
with her. Although, MA does go more than a little overboard during the date,
pinching Dawn and telling her what to do repeatedly.

Stacey wants to talk to
the Hills about Norman and Claudia and Jessi suggest that it may not go well
and they may think the BSC is "butting in." But that's what they do
best: solving problems between parents and children that the parents a) can't
solve or b) don't know exist.

Usually when they
describe Dawn foods, even I don't want to eat them. But she had my mouth
watering when she made tabouhli, hummus and babaganoush.

Lewis and Logan have the
same handwriting. I think it's BSC standard for guys to write in all capital
letters.

1 comment:

What time was this party at that they'd already started toasting?It was 7 p.m., they just decided to get into the champagne the Brewers sent before midnight. I don't see a problem with that, even though on the most recent NYE I celebrated, I believe I started drinking my champagne at 11:57.

What I find curious though is Sharon and Richard are more-laid back than the Ramsey parents. Because Jessi mentions that this is the first year she's been allowed to stay up until midnight to celebrate the new year, so that means she must've been sent to bed early the year before when she was ten. But Sharon and Richard let Jeff and the triplets stay up 'til midnight and they are ten!

I believe it is SARA Hill in later books.

I've always wondered who was looking after Kerry and Hunter during that trip to the airport to retrieve Lewis.